#LeapIntoIT Kindle Fire Giveaway
It’s that time again! Time for us to have some fun, and help one of our Upstate, SC friends get something cool to play with.
We’ve given away stuff before, like Trend Micro anti-virus, a wireless IP security camera, a Cisco Flip Mino HD video camera, Microsoft Office 2010, and even a Microsoft X-BOX 360, but this is likely the most exciting thing yet, or at least the 2nd most exciting!
We decided that since it is a Leap Year, we will help one person leap into the tablet computer revolution by giving them one of the hottest little tablets out… The Amazon Kindle Fire! It is far more than just an eBook Reader, it’s a smokin’ hot tablet too! So hot, it’s on FIRE! =)
Let’s call it the “Leap Into IT” giveaway! #LeapIntoIT
Who is eligible?
Anyone who can walk into the Homeland Secure IT office at 104 Mauldin Rd, STE E in Greenville, SC to retrieve the tablet in person. We will NOT SHIP IT. Also, you must not be prohibited by law from participating in any giveaway, and all that legal mumbo-jumbo. Let’s put an age restriction on it too. You must not be older than, no wait, you must be at least 18 to participate.
Employees of Homeland Secure IT cannot play this silly game because they would never get any work done.
Past winners of Homeland Secure IT giveaways ARE eligible (Andrea, James, Hal, etc)
How do you get involved in this?
There is NO purchase necessary, but there are some things that you will want to do…
- Pass through our initiation process – This is where you tattoo your forehead with the Homeland Secure IT logo. Okay, this is optional.
- Sign up to this blog by hitting the SUBSCRIBE BUTTON over in the right-hand column. You can receive the daily blog posts in email first thing in the morning this way. And you can opt out later (after the contest is over) when you get tired of my yammering…
- Sign up for our SUPER LOW traffic mailing lists HERE … We rarely send anything out, so you won’t be too annoyed. You can unsubscribe from either or both at anytime, AFTER the contest end date.
- Go to our home page at www.HomelandSecureIT.com and hit the Google +1 button & Facebook “like” while you are there.
- Go to our Google business places page and leave a review and rating (hopefully a good one)
- Go to Merchant Circle and leave a review/rating
- Go to Yelp and leave a review/rating
- Go to Yahoo! and leave a review/rating
- LIKE us on facebook HERE … Follow us on Twitter HERE …
Here is a list of ways to connect:
http://www.homelandsecureit.com/connect.html
If you connect in a different manner and you feel it is important, email me, or tag me in a post so I can see what you have done and count that as well!
In review, it is up to you to determine how much, or how little you wish to get involved. The more ways you connect, the more chances to get this darn Kindle Fire!
How is the selection made?
Good question! We lay out a grid, with your each name written in it in the parking lot, and we then shoot a gerbil straight into the air, and in whatever grid the gerbil falls into, that’s our winner.
Okay, (maybe) it isn’t like that at all. No, in fact it is not.
On February 29th, 2012, I’ll take every name/email address from our mailing lists, all the names of those who have reviewed us on Yelp, Google Places, Yahoo! & Merchant Circle, all the mentions on Facebook, Twitter, Linked-In, all the Likes and Follows on Twitter, Facebook, Linked-In, all the Google Plus +1s, and dump them into a spread sheet. Next I go to www.Random.Org and put the number of lines in my spreadsheet as the max number and generate a random number.
Whoever matches that number in the spreadsheet is contacted.
If they are out of the area and cannot get it in person, another number will be selected and the process repeated until we have a winner!
So, with that said… Let’s do this! Leap Into IT!!!!
‘Twas The Night Before Christmas – Computer Version
I first read this story on a University of Arkansas computer system sometime before 1985 and promptly typed it up and put it on my BBS (Non-Prophet BBS) for people to read. I have sent it in email, and “snail mail” for the last 25 years or so… I still get a kick out of it. If anyone knows the author, please contact me so I can give credit and thank them. – John M. Hoyt
‘Twas The Night Before Christmas – Computer Version
‘Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the shop,
The computers were whirring; they never do stop.
The power was on and the temperature right,
In hopes that the input would feed back that night.
The system was ready, the program was coded,
And memory drums had been carefully loaded;
While adding a Christmasy glow to the scene,
The lights on the console, flashed red, white and green.
When out in the hall there arose such a clatter,
The programmer ran to see what was the matter.
Away to the hallway he flew like a flash,
Forgetting his key in his curious dash.
He stood in the hallway and looked all about,
When the door slammed behind him, and he was locked out.
Then, in the computer room what should appear,
But a miniature sleigh and eight tiny reindeer;
And a little old man, who with scarcely a pause,
Chuckled: “My name is Santa…the last name is Claus.”
The computer was startled, confused by the name,
Then it buzzed as it heard the old fellow exclaim:
“This is Dasher and Dancer and Prancer and Vixen,
And Comet and Cupid and Donner and Blitzen.”
With all these odd names, it was puzzled anew;
It hummed and it clanked, and a main circuit blew.
It searched in its memory core, trying to “think”;
Then the multi-line printer went out on the blink.
Unable to do its electronic job,
It said in a voice that was almost a sob:
“Your eyes – how they twinkle – your dimples so merry,
Your cheeks so like roses, your nose like a cherry,
Your smile – all these things, I’ve been programmed to know,
And at data-recall, I am more than so-so;
But your name and your address (computers can’t lie),
Are things that I just cannot identify.
You’ve a jolly old face and a little round belly,
That shakes when you laugh like a bowl full of jelly;
My scanners can see you, but still I insist,
Since you’re not in my program, you cannot exist!”
Old Santa just chuckled a merry “ho, ho”,
And sat down to type out a quick word or so.
The keyboard clack-clattered, its sound sharp and clean,
As Santa fed this “data” into the machine:
“Kids everywhere know me; I come every year;
The presents I bring add to everyone’s cheer;
But you won’t get anything – that’s plain to see;
Too bad your programmers forgot about me.”
Then he faced the machine and said with a shrug,
“Merry Christmas to All,” as he pulled out its plug,
“And to all, a good night!”
Merry Christmas everyone!!!!
Yes, we’re going to do it again….
We’re going to give away something! Watch here for more info.
To be eligible, you will have to subscribe to this blog, our mailing list or our FB page *AND* be able to pick up whatever trinket it is in person… We’re not shipping it out =) (So it would be best if you were in the Upstate or Greenville SC area…
I just read an interesting blog post over on http://www.baekdal.com/tips/password-security-usability which gives a good case for not using random letters, numbers, case and special characters… The writer claims the password of “this is fun” would take about 2500 years to hack.
Most business security policies require passwords that are a minimum of 8 characters, with upper and lower case, numbers and special characters, and on top of that, they require you to change your password every so many days. Yes, very annoying, and people find not-so-creative ways to circumvent the password changes. For instance, if your password is “Fubar#70″, when prompted to do so, you may enter “Fubar#71″ the next time, and just keep incrementing it.
But, if this person is right, and an 11 character, all lower case password would take hundreds of years to hack, then maybe businesses should rethink their security policies regarding passwords?
Three simple words like “pass the gravy” would be far more secure than your “Fubar#70″, in fact go to this URL and give it a try… http://howsecureismypassword.net/
For the record, all my passwords are “p455w0rd” because I know nobody will ever guess that.
Today starts the epic culinary event of the season… Bovinova.
This thing is going to be a blast. But, unfortunately, I can’t tell you about it, until after the event. There will be fire, meat, swords (not meat swords though), entertainment and a good time will be had by all.
The presenters have been working on this for months, and starting about now, and all through the night and into tomorrow, they will prep.
I’m just glad to be a part of it, but sorry I can’t tell you about it =)
A video link will be up in a bit at http://www.Bovinova.com and you can follow the #bovinova hashtag for more info.
Screwtape at Greenville's Warehouse Theatre
Paul Savas and the Warehouse Theatre have done it again… They provided an evening of entertainment for my family that did not break the bank! Just what I needed on a Friday evening!
This time we attended the opening performance of “Screwtape”, an adaptation of “The Screwtape Letters” by C.S. Lewis, which I have never read or had any exposure to at all, nor had my daughter Megan. Of course, my wife Pamela read up on it as if there would be a test at the end.
I must admit, after seeing the incredible production of “The Rocky Horror Show” at The Warehouse Theatre, I was half expecting “Screwtape” to be about a 70s adult film or something similarly risque, but in my heart I knew the author wouldn’t go there as he was a Christian. In short, I really didn’t know what to expect at all…
The play was indeed Christian themed, and one we can all relate to, even if you are not a believer. It is about good and evil, and how evil walks the earth and tempts you…
In this case “Wormwood” (played by Dayrl Ward Phillipy) is a fiend from Hell, charged with the task of tempting Mike (Jason Adkins) under the supervision of his uncle “Screwtape” (Kevin Treu) , a seasoned devil. Should Wormwood fail, he will be eaten below, as their slogan goes, “Bring us food, or be eaten…”. They enlist a female fiend to help with this job, “Slumtrimpet” (Roberta Barnes) and a running gag is the continued varied pronunciation of “Slumtrimpet”, whom they resort to calling “Slut”.
Interesting to me is that this comes from the point of view of the evil side, showing everything that Screwtape, Wormwood and Slumtrimpet embark upon to get Mike to give up his soul. They reverse all the lines we are used to hearing, so we don’t hear, “Father above”, instead we hear, “father below”, etc.
I won’t give away the plot or the ending here… You could read up on that at the Wiki entry for The Screwtape Letters.
As in every event we have attended at the Warehouse Theatre, the set and props were perfect, the audio, video and lighting awesome, and the actors were incredible. The Upstate is apparently filled with so much talent that I didn’t even know existed and The Warehouse has found them! The only thing that could really be improved upon would be the audio track used in a couple of scenes in which the lyrics are hard to pull out. I write this one off as an opening night glitch and surely this will be cleared up quickly.
Simple people are easily amused, but I really enjoyed the stereo effects, the use of video projectors and scrims.
This show is appropriate for your more liberal church groups, as long as they can handle the words, “slut”, “bitch”, and a topic from the perspective of hell, instead of heaven for the most part. I believe it would be rated “PG” if it were a movie.
Thank you again to the cast, crew & supporters of The Warehouse Theatre for another great production! I can’t wait for January to get here because, “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf” looks interesting too!
You need to reserve your tickets now as I understand they are selling out fast, last night was totally sold out, tonight is probably sold out.
These guys did such a great job with the song, and the video…. Please take some time to go to digg and reddit (as mentioned in the video of course) and help promote them.
Click on the video below to view on YouTube and LIKE them and comment… See if you can spot and hear all the memes that are in there, there’s a ton!
Will Ragland as Dr. Frank-N-Furter
I’m sure most people who are of a certain age (say, in their 40s?) have seen The Rocky Horror Picture Show, staring Tim Curry as Dr. Frank-N-Furter… And maybe more than a few have been to a midnight showing of that movie at a movie theater. However, how many people have experienced a live performance of it?
A live performance may come in many flavors. When I lived in Los Angeles, we saw it where people dressed up and participated in the theater, and more interesting is where actors will be on the stage, and perform along with the audio playing and the actual movie on the screen behind them, and yet another way has been for the video to play, while actors and a band perform along with it (all while the audience participates)…
If you have NEVER seen the RHPS, you can catch it on the FOX Movie Channel on Halloween… All night long…. You will need an open mind, and maybe an adult beverage. More information can be obtained at http://www.rockyhorror.com/. This movie has nothing to do with “horror”, it is a rock-n-roll tribute to Sci-Fi movies of the past, with a naughty / risque flare. I don’t recommend it for immature people, or those who are easily offended.
This past Saturday, Oct-22-2010, at midnight, my wife Pamela, daughter Megan and her friend Nick went with me to the Warehouse Theatre’s production of The Rocky Horror Show. Prior to this, I had only seen it performed in the stage show manner once, and to be quite honest, it wasn’t fantastic. It was as good as amateurs could do, and everyone had a great time, but it wasn’t a “production”, it was a party.
Pamela, Megan and Nick had never seen any form of RHPS other than the movie, and didn’t know what to expect. I was not certain how it was going to be performed either since as I mentioned previously, I have seen it in various formats.
The Warehouse Theatre production is a full stage show, there is absolutely no tie to the movie itself. All scenes are performed by the actors themselves, all music is from a live band.
For those who love the movie, your first thought may be, “This is going to stink”, because as everyone knows, it is very hard to pull off a well known number such as “Sweet Transvestite” and not be compared (unfavorably) with Tim Curry’s version. Likewise, the other characters from the motion picture are very dynamic and difficult to reproduce. Admittedly, I went in expecting somewhat of a lackluster show. In the words of Magenta, “I ask for nothing”. Then Frank’s reply: “And you shall receive it… In abundance!!!!”
Rocky Horror Show Cast
That was not the case at all. The actors that portrayed the main characters were unbelievable! Will Ragland brought a new twist to Frank, without trying to duplicate his every nuance, and Rocky… Ohhhh Rocky, he was far better than the original Rocky in the movie! Better in every way… He sang his own parts (as did all the actors), and he looked the part. (My wife and daughter, and just about everyone were fixated on this guy’s genuinely beautiful physique… Uhmm, okay, that sounded weird for ME to say that, but it’s true).
These actors had to do something that Tim Curry and his movie cast never had to worry with, they had to perform while the audience shouted out all kinds of off the wall comments, as is the tradition with RHPS. The actors managed to keep straight faces, and use a good bit of improv to interact with the audience, which made the show all the more fun! Audience participation is a major part of this, and there are guides on the internet that will show you what to do, what to say, when to say it, etc.
We purchased the “audience participation pack”, which included light sticks (since flames are dangerous), confetti, newspaper etc. No rubber gloves or noisemakers as some scenes from the movie are not present, such as the dinner/birthday party scene, where you get to say “Meatloaf again????”. But, not missed, and I’m sure were not part of the original stage production.
I’m a technical kind of guy, and very critical when it comes to audio and lighting, so I will add this in for those of you who are like me and love to pick things apart. The audio was absolutely perfect. Good levels, and great control, especially when you take into consideration the number of open mics involved. The lighting could not have been improved upon.
Every number performed by the band was well orchestrated, the mix was low, but necessary in order to have legible vocals. I only wish I could have played guitar or bass (I even emailed the Warehouse Theatre and asked if they needed a guitarist or bass player, but they had already put their band together by that time).
The remaining shows are probably sold out by now, even though they added some extra performances in November, so if you want to attend and see what all this is about, call TODAY – The box office number is 864.235.6948 or you can visit their website for more information.
My hat is off to the cast and the crew for a superb job! We had a marvelous evening out (early morning rather) and as always, with the Warehouse Theatre, it didn’t break the bank like it would have at other venues in Greenville.
Yeah, I know, this has absolutely nothing to do with Computer Service, Computer Repair or even Business, but even hard working people have to take a break and enjoy themselves every once in a while. I highly recommend it.
Do you have an iPad? Then you know it can do some pretty awesome things… There just a few ways in which an old newspaper is better….
The Clean House - Sarah Ruhl
Let me preface this post with the fact that I had never heard of The Warehouse Theatre until my family participated in the “Google on Main” event earlier this year. After that event, there was a follow-up which took place at The Warehouse and that was the first time I set foot in the facility.
Since then, we have been seeing lots of discussions on various social media sources about plays and events at that venue and decided we just had to check it out, so I purchased tickets on the phone last week for “The Clean House”… To make this even more interesting, I scored a “Social Media Press Pass” which let me in for free… What on earth was The Warehouse Theatre thinking when they gave MEa press pass? haha I think it must be because I quickly jumped on the band wagon when Aaron Von Frank (@AaronVonFrank) said he and Paul would dress up as French Maids and clean the home of one lucky attendee if all the shows sold out!
All that aside, I took my wife Pamela, 17 year old daughter Megan and 15 year old son Brett this afternoon’s performance of “The Clean House”.
Having little exposure to community theatre, I must admit that when I walked in the doors today I was not exactly sure what to expect. I’ve been to many plays and musical productions, paying lots of money for great seats in world reknown theatres, and to be honest, I had braced myself for disappointment. I assumed that I would be watching a production similar to a high school play, with lousy lighting, poor audio, a spartan set and worse, actors straight out of the high school drama department.
Boy was I wrong! The audio was perfect, excellent sound quality, not a missed cue. The lighting was outstanding, including a video backdrop with colored background and text/graphics that were perfectly synchronized with the actors – if there was a mistake made, I sure didn’t witness it!
The set itself was a work of art and fit perfectly with the lifestyle of Lane (Stark white, sterile, with modern furnishings), however, the biggest thing I was wrong about was the quality of these actors!
I am not familiar with the work of the playwright, Sarah Ruhl, but these actors managed to portray characters that I believe we all can relate to and managed to capture our hearts in doing so. Many Broadway productions I’ve seen could have benefited from the expertise of this cast! I saw nothing but true seasoned professionals!
Without giving away too much, this play is funny… And the timing of the cast was impeccable. The lead character, Matilda (played by Lynne Junker) is a hired on by Lane (Debra Capps) as a house keeper, but she hates cleaning… Matilda has us laughing from the start. Virginia (played by Elizabeth Finley) the OCD sister of Lane feels moved to help the “depressed” Matilda by cleaning for her.
While cleaning, Virginia discovers the undergarments of someone other than Lane and that leads to the assumption that Lane’s husband Charles is having an affair. As it turns out, it is more than an affair, and we are taken on an interesting ride through what could be considered unbelievable if you have never been involved in something so ludacris in real life. My wife says she can totally relate with every character as the twist and turns unfold.
The play takes you full circle through relationships and the drama that goes with them sometimes. As I mentioned, it is very lighthearted, so do go prepared to laugh at the tragic story. (It is really a love story, but I’ll let you discover this for yourself)…
I feel I must appologize to these wonderful actors and The Warehouse Theatre for being so cynical about what Greenville had to offer in The Arts. I have been missing out on a lot and I am glad to have discovered this source of entertainment and enlightenment for our family. For a fraction of the cost of an evening at The Peace Center, you can rest assured we will be visiting this venue frequently!
The next show at The Warehouse Theatre is “The Rocky Horror Show”, a personal favorite that is coming up in October!!!! Hope to see you there!
